A critical Windows Server security update is coming today

Microsoft will release a new security patch for many of its supported versions of Windows today at 1 pm Eastern time, including for the Windows 10 Technical Preview. This patch is being offered outside the company's normal schedule for security bulletins and concentrates on its server operating systems.

A week ago, Microsoft released over 10 security bulletins for a number of software products as part of their monthly "Patch Tuesday" event, including four for Windows 10. Today's advanced notification doesn't offer any specific details of what this new MS14-068 patch is supposed to fix, but it is labeled as "Critical" and will deal with an "Elevation of Privilege" issue. Microsoft states, "We strongly encourage customers to apply this update as soon as possible, following the directions in the security bulletin."

In addition to the Windows 10 preview and the Windows 10 Server Technical Preview, the patch will fix the unnamed Elevation of Privilege issue for Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2. The patch will not fix an issue in Microsoft's client operating systems like Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows RT and Windows 8.1 because, according to Microsoft, "the vulnerability addressed in this bulletin is not present" in those software products. However, it added, "This update provides additional defense-in-depth hardening that does not fix any known vulnerability."